Page 1000 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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Madam Deputy Speaker, let me reiterate: the revised project schedule costs and information will be advised to the Assembly as soon as practicable. The government remains very mindful of the interest that the Assembly and, indeed, the broader Canberra community have in this issue. However, at this point it is not realistic to respond to an arbitrary date as proposed by Mrs Dunne. I therefore move the amendment circulated in my name:
In paragraph (1), omit all words after “notes that”, substitute:
“(a) the Enlarged Cotter Dam project has experienced delays due to a number of factors including significant rainfall in recent years;
(b) the total project budget is now under serious pressure due to these delays and significant rainfall;
(c) ACTEW Corporation is revising the total project budget due to in particular the impact of rain and flooding events in late February and early March 2012;
(d) the total project budget as at 1 March 2012 was $363 million; and
(e) the total project expenditure to 29 February 2012 was $315.7 million; and
(2) calls on the shareholders of ACTEW Corporation to provide to the Assembly:
(a) a revised estimated total budget for the Dam as soon as practicable when the revised budget is known and approved by the ACTEW Board; and
(b) a revised schedule for the Dam’s construction as soon as practicable when the revised schedule is known and approved by the ACTEW Board.”.
I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.56): There are a few points to make in relation to both this amendment and this motion in general—and, in fact, ACT Labor’s handling of this dam project, this dam debacle. This is another example of how ACT Labor just cannot build things. They cannot get it done. This is fast becoming the aquatic GDE. It is the half-built dam at triple the cost. We had half a road which was more than double the cost. This is the aquatic GDE. We have seen the debacle that was the GDE; now we are seeing it with Cotter Dam.
They wasted years putting their heads in the sand, pretending we would not need another dam. At one point, this government said, “We may never, ever need another dam for the ACT.” They waited until the depths of the drought before they even started the planning and the construction work on the Cotter Dam. As was pointed out in the Sunday Canberra Times editorial a couple of weeks ago, you cannot blame this rain event for these things blowing out. They stuffed around for years doing nothing, hoping it would all be okay. No, it is not okay because we are now in this position.
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